Between these pages
by OtterAndTerrier
Summary: [COMPLETE] They knew it'd take a balancing act for their relationship to work when they could only see each other a couple of hours every few weeks. But she was his favourite book, he was her favourite reason to break the rules, and that was all they needed this time.


**A/N:** I took part in a R/Hr Fest of explicit nature and this was my entry. Fics were anonymous until after voting took place, and today the authors and winners were revealed, so I can share this here.

I haven't posted here in a while for reasons, though I've been writing and posting to my Tumblr. That stuff will be here at some point, but not yet. Meanwhile, have some smut. Please keep in mind that this is a PWP fic, and it got a little award as "Best Digital Stimulation", so you gotta know it's explicit. Please don't report me.

 **Disclaimer:** JKR owns any known characters, names and settings. The characters featured in this story are of age according to the rules of consent in the UK.

* * *

 **Between these pages**

The Hogwarts library had always been her sanctuary. It had everything Hermione loved: more books than she'd have time to read during her lifetime; the weirdly delicious smell of old pages; a beautiful, historic architecture; a comforting ambience. Today, the rustling of parchment and quills was absent except for her own, giving her a sense of isolation from the world, the cheers and shouts from outside barely reaching her.

She didn't hear another sound until someone spoke, startling her.

'There she is.'

Hermione hopped to her feet and launched herself towards Ron, hugging him tight around the waist.

'This is the third time you've come and the second you kept quiet about it,' she chided him gently, tilting up her face to rest her chin on his chest.

'I can leave if you've got better plans,' Ron teased, smiling nervously.

'Don't be daft. I just want to know, how come you're here? Or rather, does Professor McGonagall know?' she asked, looking at Ron with suspicion.

'I'm highly offended,' he said, raising both eyebrows. ''Course she does. I asked whether Harry and I could come when Gryffindor played. It's only half the day and you and Ginny wouldn't be doing homework anyway, so we wouldn't be distracting you.'

He regarded her with amusement.

'Of course I didn't count on you staying in to do homework.' He bent down and kissed her nose. 'Must've forgotten _you're_ my girlfriend.'

'Oh, shut up and kiss me,' she told him, tugging at his jacket.

She didn't have to ask twice. Ron lowered his head and obliged… but pulled away before she could respond.

'Hey!' Hermione complained, glaring at him. She didn't have time to take another breath, though: he lunged at her mouth again, one of his hands bringing her body closer, the other sliding up into her hair as he kissed her deeply. They hadn't seen each other since her first trip to Hogsmeade, weeks ago. Reasonably, it was more than they had counted on, but it was still not enough. She bit his lip slightly before parting, chastising him for his teasing.

'I'm glad now that you weren't on the Quidditch pitch,' Ron told her huskily. Hermione hummed in agreement, pressing her palms over the chest of his old Gryffindor T-shirt and sliding them up to his shoulders under the jacket. 'Why weren't you? You didn't want to see Ginny play?'

'I did, I was going to go. But the more I thought about it, the more I didn't think I could.' Hermione stared at him, feeling a ghost of anxiety in the pit of her stomach. 'I went to the trials, but there were a lot of people and… it got very crowded, and noisy, and some of the other students still stare at me. I felt a little suffocated, couldn't wait for it to be over.'

She breathed through her nose a couple of times to make the feeling go away.

'I'm very sorry about Ginny, I really wanted to see her first match as Captain,' she lamented. 'I just didn't think I could sit through that for hours. And it upset me even more that you and Harry wouldn't be there. It was another reminder that I'm doing this without you two, and it feels so strange sometimes.'

'Ginny will understand, don't worry,' Ron said soothingly. 'But you were going to spend all the morning in here, alone? Where's Madam Pince?'

'Oh, she's got a cold, didn't want to open the library. I had to ask Professor McGonagall to convince her I'm not going to besmirch her precious books so she'd let me in. And I don't mind staying here,' Hermione told him, shrugging. 'Remember the first Quidditch match we went to?'

Ron screwed up his face in mock effort.

'The one where Harry almost got thrown off his broomstick and you set Snape on fire? I _think_ I do.'

'We'd become friends very recently,' Hermione recounted, smiling up at him, 'and you tried to be extra nice and polite to me the first days, but by then you thought we were familiar enough to tell me it was "mental" that I wondered whether the match would take too long because I had homework.'

'I forget the details,' Ron laughed.

'I was obviously interested in seeing what Quidditch was about,' she went on. 'But afterwards, I mainly kept going because of you and Harry. And when you joined the team, I had an added reason to attend.'

Ron snorted, though the grin on his face betrayed his pleasure.

'Are you telling me you made a point not to miss my spectacular Keeper abilities?'

She rolled her eyes.

'Yes, because you weren't bad, you just didn't believe it yourself—'

'Same difference,' he muttered.

'Besides, that's not what I meant,' Hermione said, ignoring him. 'It was important to you, I think even more so than to Harry, in a way. I wanted to be there to support you. It was hard to watch most of the time, I won't deny that.'

Ron chuckled.

'But when you played well and you helped win the match, the look on your face…' She traced her fingers along his jaw, staring at a freckle that sat on the border of his bottom lip. 'It felt like it was all worth it.'

He let out a heavy breath and moved her hand away from his mouth to kiss her again. He was warm, smelling of aftershave and shampoo, and kissing her, at Hogwarts. Hermione could almost pretend it was an alternate reality of their seventh year, where he'd come with her and they could do this daily. She felt her feet moving backwards until her back hit the book-filled shelves. One of Ron's hands moved from her back to her waist, grazing her hipbones as it sneaked under her jumper, and the tips of his long fingers brushed softly up and down her lower ribs. He moved to kiss her neck and dipped lower to her collarbone, finding her pulse at the same time his hand found the edge of her bra.

Hermione felt his breath over the neckline of her sweater and her chest swelled. She felt vaguely amused thinking how synchronised his movements seemed, as both Ron's head and his hand rose, the first meeting her lips again, the second wrapping itself around her breast. His thumb reached out until it found flesh and slid under the cup of her bra. She gasped into his mouth as the pad of his thumb flicked her nipple, heaving under his hand.

'I've missed this,' he said in a near growl, releasing her hand to join his other one under her clothes. She mirrored him, her palms skimming over his ribs.

'Me too—' Her bra unclasped and Hermione cut herself off, looking wide-eyed at Ron. 'Don't take it off! Madam Pince—she said she was going to come round to check on me!'

'I wasn't going to,' Ron assured her, his neck and ears reddening. 'I know we can't shag in the middle of the library.'

His fingers traced along the mark the garment had left on either side and crept up the swell of her breasts, now unencumbered. She shivered as he outlined her chest, ticklish but tenderly, then slightly rough as he moved towards the centre again. She closed her eyes and dug her fingers on Ron's chest.

'We can do this, though, can't we?' he whispered, bumping his nose against hers. 'We probably won't be alone again until Christmas. We can't shag, but…'

One of his hands slid down her side and moved over her stomach, his fingers curling over her waistband.

'… we can do something less… compromising.'

She opened her eyes and met his serious look. Her heart beat madly under the hand still cupping her breast.

'You mean—? But you've never—if we get caught—'

'We'd be able to get away quickly,' he reasoned, and Hermione knew he was right. He was practically shielding her from sight; there'd be no exposed skin, and the door creaked: they would know if someone was coming. Besides, they'd both be able to stop and move apart at once if he didn't—

'What about you?' she asked as a last objection, thinking of the hardness that had begun to poke at her tight, her arms wrapping once more around his neck.

'I'll manage,' he said. 'Is that a yes?'

She licked her lips and swallowed, her voice low and rough when she spoke.

' _Please._ '

The crowd cheered in the distance, and Ron gave her a smile that was a mix of amused and excited, his blue eyes staring intensely at her. She pecked his lips and ducked her head under his chin, pressing her mouth to his neck. His hand slipped under her trousers at last and massaged between her hipbones, making her blood tingle under her skin.

'We're breaking about fifty rules,' she said breathlessly, as his other hand finally moved from her chest and around her back for support.

'But you've been known to break the rules for a good cause,' Ron said above her, dipping his fingers under her knickers. 'And I've been too much of a bad influence for you to stop now.'

The palm of his hand cupped round her and she gasped again against his throat when his fingers came into contact with the tender, wet flesh below.

'Fuck,' he said. Two of his fingers moved in exploration before joining in the middle and rubbing against her, making her tighten her grip. She arched her back and thrust her hips forward, back bumping against the shelves, and he took it as a signal to slide a finger inside her.

'Is that okay?' he asked, the hand around her back stretching effortlessly to brush the side of her opposite breast.

'Yes,' she sighed, thinking that, if his long fingers had a purpose, this had to be it. A second finger joined in and they started moving, halfway out, then in again, rubbing up against her clitoris. Her hands threaded tightly through his hair, nails scratching his scalp, as she rocked her hips. The rhythm of his fingers and her body sped up, and together with the brush of his fingertips on her breast, she felt herself clamp around him and her breath became shallow as a familiar sensation began to build around her middle. Her eyelids fluttered when the warmth crept up her body and her brain went blank for a second as she came with a moan.

Ron's arm wrapped around her waist and he kissed her temple while her breathing normalized, her shaky limbs barely supporting her.

'All right?'

'Wonderful.'

Ron smirked.

'That's great to know, for future reference.'

She blushed, internally approving.

'You?'

''M fine,' he said, angling his body slightly away from hers.

She bit her lip and acted before she could overthink it.

'What are you—'

'Shh, hurry,' Hermione interrupted, undoing hers and Ron's flies together.

'But—'

'You said it,' she interrupted, staring at him. 'I'm capable of breaking the rules for a good cause.'

He worked her bottoms low enough and hoisted her up against the bookshelves, one arm around her bum, before he entered her. Her trousers were in the way, but he helped her move and it didn't take long for her to come again, this time joined by Ron, groaning and swearing brokenly into her hair.

'Better?' Hermione panted as he broke apart.

'Ye—'

The door of the library creaked and they jumped.

'Quickly, sit down!' Hermione instructed, fixing her clothes and rushing to her seat. She pretended to be completely absorbed by her book, while Ron crossed his arms over the table and looked nonchalant.

'You know,' he said under his breath as the librarian's steps sounded closer, 'I'm glad you're not a book, because I don't think Madam Pince would appreciate that kind of fingering.'

As much as _she'd_ appreciated it, Hermione still punched him on the shoulder.


End file.
